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Friday, November 18, 2011

Propaganda for the Occupy Movement

The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.

I've joked these past few weeks about being an Occuposer since I work constantly and only voice my approval and admiration of The Occupy Movement though I'm not out in the streets protesting. This evening I drew up a Guy Fawkes mask in my own surreal style with a bangin' third eye to make a few propaganda pieces and lend my skills! Feel free to share these around, post them on social networks and even email me if you want a print-sized version to get them made in real life and take it to the streets! I'm not Jay-Z and I'm not here to make a dime off them, just drop a line to dregstudios@gmail.com. What you get here are 11in x 17in web quality so let me know if you 'd like a print file you can blow any of them up as large as your imagination and wallet will take you with the help of your local printer.

I am more fortunate than some... not as fortunate as others. I join the rest of the 99% grinding through my Six Day work weeks managing a marketing department to come home to a wonderful and loving wife who shares me with my art, which Occupies much of my time aside from sleep and being punched in on someone else's clock. Like most Americans, despite full-time work- I have no health insurance, I can't afford a house, I owe money with exorbitant interests rates, I've had my wages garnished for student loan debts and I get a fraction of the time off that workers in Communist and Socialist countries get.

Before we can change the way Capitalism has distorted our lives, we have to admit there is a problem. We have to stop being get-along / go-along. We have to raise our voice. The Occupy movement is the most important event in modern history for two reasons: 1) People are bringing attention to the fact that there's not just a problem, there are many; and 2) The past two months of our lives have marked a first in human history- a GLOBAL Protest! Through the power of the internet, word-of-mouth and despite media blackouts the first few weeks of the sit-ins, the message of the 99% has spread across the entire world with major demonstrations in over 80 countries.

"Every generation needs a new Revolution." -Thomas Jefferson

If you didn't realize the scale of these events over the past 9 weeks, its because our Government and Big Business don't want you to know. They want you to think that there are unemployed drug addicts gathering in parks. They don't want you to know about the hundreds and thousands of Union Workers, Teachers, Retired Police, Veterans, Unemployed College Graduates, Medical Professionals, Musicians, Actors, Artists and Brilliant Peaceful Folk who are standing up and saying YES- there is a problem. Research for yourself and read read read. Power is knowledge and if you spend 15 minutes a day reading about the things you WANT to change, then you can help facilitate that very CHANGE. 15 minutes a day 6 days a week equal 25 books worth of knowledge in a single year. Just 35 books of knowledge equals an $80,000 MBA education.

"The man who thinks becomes a light and a power!" -Henry George

Hundreds of people have been arrested over the past two months in cities from Nashville to Denver to Los Angeles to Portland and everywhere in between here in our country. The same is happening across Canada, much of Europe and Australia on the same large scale. Over the past week, every Constitutional right of American Citizens has been compromised by the corruption of our Government from the Arms of Big Business and their seemingly infinite reach. Press members have been arrested, quarantined outside of raids as to not be able to report them- even news helicopters were grounded in New York City. Pregnant women, elderly women and college students have been gassed, pepper sprayed and beaten in the streets. Is this the United States we were taught to love by our system? It is today and we can't be too careful about letting our rights slip further out of our grasp.

"Man's greatest fear is that he can do anything." -Nelson Mandella

I stand with the 99% and am grateful for each and every person who Occupies the streets of the United States and all over the world. They are fighting for you and I. They are standing up for our civil liberties. They are raising their voices to call for change. They want you to have health insurance. They want your children to have affordable education. They want you to be able to keep your house and know what retirement is. They want to live in a better and fairer world and not just for one out of every hundred of us.

Thanks so much for posting a link to your art on the OccupyDRBC Facebook page. Your work is fantastic! OccupyDRBC is fighting the fracking scourge that is killing (literally) Americans, their animals and the wildlife in the 34 states where it is occurring. OccupyDRBC is in solidarity with OccupyWallStreet because we are all fighting the broken system that has stolen our rights. If you want to know more about fracking and our efforts to stop it, check us out at www.OccupyDRBC.org. Yesterday we won a major battle against four governors and Obama!Thanks again for your work to help turn America into a country we really can love.

Maybe you should push yourself away from self glorification, on the backs of others, and stop being an "Occuposer" and be with the people on the streets that you are gleeming your catchy phrases, and profiting from.

Hi Brandt... thanks for sharing this with us. I've linked it in our Arts section of our new forums. http://occupyforums.freeforums.org/some-occupy-art-from-brandt-hardin-t72.htmlThis address is likely to change in the next week or two as we migrate it to our main website. After that you can find it via www.occupybrisbane.net page and click through to forums.Cheers... Occupy Brisbane, Australia.

Douglas County, OccupyDRBC, and Australia Michaela- thanks so much for the wonderful comments. I means so much to have voices from around the world uniting for a singular purpose!

Self-glorified Anonymous, obviously you can't read very well since I'm not profiting from these images and posters I've created. They are free to download, print, use and distribute. Local organizers can email me for print-sized files.

Rather than complaining and simply ranting about what's wrong, why not actually give suggestions on how to repair things. This is what EVERY movement is lacking and why they aren't receiving support from the majority of Americans.

As I pointed out in what I wrote above, the first step is to admit there is a problem, this is WHY the Occupy Movement is so important. Next we have to find a way how to drive a wedge between Big Business and our Government. I agree there needs to be more focus on setting main priorities. If we start by ending Lobbying and Corporate Citizenship, then we can move on to fixing the problems caused by corruption of our political system by Corporate America.

1 a : to describe the phenomena of arts and culture integrating with social issues.2 : “Assist in understanding of the relationship between Humans and their Environment through the Arts ultimately promoting a sustainable global Culture of Peace”.

UC Chancellors are paid big bucks to take responsibility for a campus including the cops. Cops take direction from the campus chancellors: now chancellors are hiding behind their cops.Honorably retire UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau ($450,000 salary) and UC Davis Chancellor for applying violence to their students who were protesting Chancellor supported increases in tuition.

Maybe you shouldn't have wasted your money and time going to college. Any idiot can turn on a computer and produce the sort of stuff you have posted here. It's not big biz or the government's fault you picked a field flooded and low-paying. Why did you spend money if, as you post, a number of books can provide an $80,000.00 education? If you really want to change thee world, start by changing yourself.

I realized quickly upon going to school that in fact I didn't want to pursue a college education in art. I dropped out after a year and spent 10 years paying that one year off. This exemplifies how outrageously unbalanced the monetary value placed on a secondary education is.

I speak from experience in saying that reading and self-informing is powerful and dare say I have more general knowledge and artistic skills than most graduates. The vast majority of art majors teach or have design and advertising jobs which pay the same or less than my chosen profession. I'm very happy with my decision and am glad I'm NOT a professional illustrator. I am FREE to do what I want with my work and am not obligated to make art for a living which doesn't speak from my heart. Nobody can censor, suppress or take that away from me!

Isn't it amazing how uninformed people are?! Instead of getting informed on what is going on in this country, they would rather get on the Internet and find someone to be rude too! When you are living in a camp with a million other people because you have no where to live, nothing to eat and no job, I'm sure your rudeness will be even greater and you will be serving the 1%. The OWS is to bring power back to the people and not the corporations who own Congress & Washington. OWS are patriotic citizens, who may not have jobs any longer,lost their homes, or not much income any more, students with huge loans in order to attend college to get a quality education, some are still working but know the struggles of this country, some are small business owners (who actually have closed their businesses for a day to join protestors) but they are with the majority of the country now. Thanks Brandt for supporting the OWS+ and being informed! The police are part of the 99% and the 1% are having them attack the 99%.When the police lose their jobs, we'll see who they want to stand with. God Bless the USA and the Occupiers every where because we need all the help we can get to turn from the corruption and take this country back. See the Liberty Walk Youtube video to see how non-violent protestors have been treated. Naomi

Naomi, thanks so much for such an impassioned comment. Unfortunately the main stream press is controlled by their sponsors and the politicians are already bought and paid for in so many cases. We have to Kick Wall Street OUT of Washington!

Stunning stuff. Just followed your link under my Gather post. I think the mainstream media will continue to toe the establishment line, so people are going to have to use their own media to get their voice heard.

You are absolutely right Paul! I saw a clip on RT today about Hilary Clinton saying they are losing the information war to alternative media now. The power of wireless communication will give organizers the power to do things under the radar. The Government and Wall Street are running scared, hence the crackdowns and placing undercovers withing the groups.

The cover story for OWS is honorable and most people agree there is corruption but it's interesting to see who stands with the OWS movement. Really, the Communist Party of America among others! Pretty telling.

The problem is OWS people don't know stuff. Here in CA and in many states the government unions (who also interestingly enough back OWS) are bankrupting cities, counties and states across this country with obscene pay, benefits and pensions including the school systems.

It's not the 1% or corporate greed that has caused this massive problem, it's union greed and corruption of the left to the level we haven't seen in this country ever.

OWS should be occupying the White House, Congress and all government agencies who have participated in all of this corruption, not in downtown areas where honest business people are trying to provide for their families and honest working people are trying to get to their jobs.

Another interesting tidbit, almost half of folks here in the US don't pay federal income tax. How about addressing that issue while demonizing the top 1% who at least in CA pay almost half of all of the taxes collected in the state. How unfair is that?

Cover Story Hector, I'd love to see the sources you find your disinformation. I do agree however that OWS should be Occupying Washington, as they fully intend to do after the new year. We MUST kick Big Business out of the Government!

Of course, you lose any part of your audience you are attempting to make a point to when you wrap things up by calling them losers. I take it you've never done any public speaking.

Sarcastic Anonymous, I've worked hard all my life to get where I am (still working 50 hours a week aside from my art.) I grew up in a single wide mobile home in rural TN where at times we didn't even have running water. Fortunately I know about hardship and grew up with my family farming and living off the land. Those skills will come in handy when the Wall Street bubble bursts and we are forced to go back to more communal and local living. To even make a comment like that, you're obviously out of touch with any facet of poverty.

Absolutely! I've been saying the entire time that they have the same agendas. There is nothing wrong with Republican values just as there is nothing wrong with Democratic, it's the corruption of political offices that have cause the problems the average American (and citizen of ANY country with a similar financial system)want changed and rebalanced to make their vote count again.

It's a crying shame that most Tea Party groups are letting the media drive a wedge between them by making it about party lines. The whole issue inspired the poster above- This is a GLOBAL Protest! I have read a handful of inspiring articles about Tea Party and Occupy groups in some smaller cities joining forces- THIS is how CHANGE happens! We have to ALL first agree there is a problem.

My bad on the Loser name, note it was at the end and I thought I had deleted it.

However that is how I see many of these folks as do many if not most hardworking folks in this country for good reason. As you've pointed out elsewhere they're only mission at the moment is to point out there's a problem. Well, everyone knows there's a problem. What is OWS's solutions besides stealing from one person and giving to another? That's not moral.

You are who you hang with, some pretty scary organizations that are clearly against what America stands for, The American Nazi Party, The Socialist Party USA, private and public unions as well as Obama, Pelosi and for the most part the Democrat party who are themselves whored out to special interests and will not correct this problem of corruption.

Colleges: "...If current trends continue, the Department of Education estimates that by 2014 there will be more administrators than instructors at American four-year nonprofit colleges. A bigger administration also consumes a larger portion of available funds, so it’s unsurprising that budget shares for instruction and student services have dipped over the past fifteen years."

Here in CA our CSU system has already beat this statistic with the administration growing by 200+% as faculty grew by 3%. This is the result of government subsidizing secondary education in record levels where the schools spend the extra money building massive empires causing the cost to skyrocket saddling our youth with huge education loans as you well know. Here in CA as the rest of the population is stinging with record unemployment the UC system is giving 10-22% pay increases!

None of these scenarios is related to Wall Street greed.

The REAL solution is in our Constitution which limits the involvement of our government in our daily lives and society as a whole. If we continue to ignore this precious document and don't get back to the basics, you will never see corruption end. I hear this with the Tea Party, I don't hear this with the OWS. Why is that?

Thanks for the artwork & I'll use some of it on www.prairiefirenews,com if you don't mind. A long question (and it was the lead-in on the pfn website today): Am I the only person in this world that has thought the police response to OWS is a dress-rehearsal for the governments of the western world to help them prepare for the revolutions and civil wars that are certain to come when and if the middle and poorer classes finally all wake up to the fact that we’re getting screwed?

Thanks for sharing around the posters Calico. You're not alone in your assumptions and the new "FEMA" camps being set up around the country go to back up your fears. These camps, supposedly for natural disasters, have barbed wire fences and guard towers and the largest is built to house 1,000,000 people... yes, ONE MILLION. Our government is referring to these as precautionary measures against mother nature. You and I have our own fears. Even one million though is just .3% of the population...

Getting back to you Hector, I couldn't disagree AND agree with you more.

There is NOTHING scary about Socialism. You can thank the Reagan Administration for demonizing the word for our generation and selling us on a Cold War arms race with made war profiteers rich by making an obscene stockpile of arms which can blow up the entire planet eight times over. It is typical of Capitalism to overindulge for profit. Socialist models have a lot to offer as does Democracy... the problem is their execution in the wrong hands for the wrong reasons in BOTH cases.

I agree that we MUST get back to our Constitutional values in order to save our Democracy!

I love how people give the UC Favis cops hell for the pepper spraying of those people. YouTube the full video, it's about 15 minutes long, not the edited video that demonizes the police. The UC cops were surrounded by a crowed of over 200 protesters. They were surrounded in a circle with no way to retreat. They sprayed those protesters So thy could get out safely. But who cares about police safety right?

I have also seen the long version of the video which some student Republican put together with his own spin. Not a single student acted out with violence or really anything too verbally threatening other than chanting. The police were surrounded at one point but that is it- it was distanced and they were never put in harms way or the surrounding students would have been sprayed logically right?

The bottom line is the kids who WERE pepper-sprayed were sitting and a threat to absolutely no one or anything. This incident is the grosses example of abuse of power and authority I have seen and it makes me sick still these weeks later. It was painfully obvious the cop was enjoying his work, exemplifying a MAJOR problem in Law Enforcement.

You should spend a day in the life of a cop. Everything is a threat. People want to kill you just because of what you do for work. Case in point, VA tech's most recent shooting of a cop. How do they know that no one has a weapon. They are surrounded with no means of egress. The ones that got sprayed were the ones that legally could be because they were block the public way. And if you pay attention in the movie, they say that they will allow a "moment of peace" to let the police leave. In police work, that is a hostile and dangerous place to be. Out numbered with no way out.

People can say they are peaceful but as a cop, you can't trust them because people can say what they want and lie. People lie all the time. Yes, I am a cop but I support the idea of this movement. I just feel that it is not happening right. By getting arrested they are proving nothing but their stupidity. Does walstreer

I am all to familiar with the distrust of police due to my character and looks. I have tattoos and long hair and have been a victim of profiling on several occasion. I get pulled over for something like a broken tail light and all of a sudden the officer wants to search my vehicle without cause. I refuse the search and get detained while dogs are walked across my hood and damage my car. This has happened twice in the past 10 years to me.

So much trouble roots from the very issue you've admitted to here- as a cop, you don't trust anyone and everyone is a liar. This is why hundreds if not thousands of people are wrongly incarcerated and even executed in this increasing Police State.

We'll have to agree to disagree about whether the use of force at UC Davis was justified.

I'm delighted to hear you state that change needs to occur. You are right there with us being disgruntled with our Government and its corruption. I agree one of the major needs is an alternate political party which can find a way to strike a chord with the American public to where they can even the playing field. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have been perverted from the inside out by lobbying, which has made bribery and corruption perfectly legal. We vote for persons who DO NOT vote for us, but only for their invested interests.

Protesting is a good thing for people in other countries and our goverment encourages it. Usually protests are non violent utill govenments attempt to supress the voice of the people.History is being rewritten, Unions in this country were formed because the rich wanted slaves to live substandard lives while they wallered in wealth. So what did business do? They employed thier cronies in goverment in an attempt to kill the unions in thier infancy.Business has waged a war with Unions for years and has be successful in labeling union workers as lazy, and overpaid which is not true. The new union movement, Occupy, have legitimate grievances and have been labeled as lazy and wanting handouts and it seems that tihs labeling is an attempt to thwart thier efforts. The GREED party has been sucessful in buying our goverment and this needs to stop. Occupy is bringing this to light so I support them in thier efforts

All that I ask of people is to understand why cops develop the cynical attitude of "everybody lies and everybody has a weapon." in your line of work what the worst thing that can happen to you? You might get carpal tunnel or Nother injury related to repeated motions. In my line of work I can be killed. It only takes letting your guard down once and it's game over. My wife and kid will be handed a folded flag and a thank you from the state of Maine. So any situation where you are out numbered substantially with a group of people that are upset needs to be treated like a dangerous one. Sure, there are dick cops. But there are also dick McDonalds employees and dick toll collectors. But there are far more good cops than bad.I appricIate you demeanor with this. Most people I talk with about OWS see that I am not all for it and then turn cut throat on me.

Paul, Unfortunately in our American society, every last thing is about the money now- ESPECIALLY our judicial system. It's a money game, and that's all they are after. This is why not a single person in our country has to see a probation officer after paying off their probation costs... they don't care anymore- they got paid.

Bringing the Light Anonymous, thanks for your support... help those who are afraid to keep their voiced raised. I like the way your are viewing the protest as one big Union... the NEW American Union! I love it!

I also appreciate the civility of our exchange here and I think we may have helped one another out in a sense. This is how things SHOULD be done- with listening as well as speaking our points of view. A shouting match won't get anything done- just look at the majority of Congressional sessions. I understand guarding your throat... you should hear the things said about me FOR supporting Occupy.

Yes, there are dick cops and yes there are dick protesters and I think they give both entities a bad rap. The media loves to take isolated incidents from both and run with them. The guy who says he runs with Occupy and defecates on a Police cruiser should be in jail. Likewise, the cop who pepper sprays an 80 year old woman should also be behind bars.

If we keep both sides in check, maybe the voices seeking true common ground and solutions to our problems will be more able to shine through the ugly by-product of violence.

I dig your work! If u could send me the Revolution-Its as a american as apple pie and the Thomas Jefferson poster that would be much appreciated!! I actually work @tjs house in c-ville va., I truly believe if jefferson was here he would be at a protest- speaking out against the gov.,media,politics,greed,and the need to resist tyranny!

Beautiful artwork and thank you for your work...where are people getting the idea that Occupier supporters don't have jobs??? MANY of us have real, honest to goodness full time jobs...and MANY, MANY of us have professional careers that these individuals who are casting Occupiers as "jobless" would envy!! Put the myth down. We full time, employed, college-educated, debt-free hard-working people are supporting the return of a country that belongs to the people, not the corporations, and the elimination of excessive and uncalled for force among those law enforcement officials who are practicing those tactics. WE HAVE JOBS. AND WE VOTE.

Great stuff man! I showed your website to all my friends on the front lines fighting capitalism! I know with your glorious artwork we can all work to fight the evil capitalist pigs that are stealing from us decent, hard-working americans to advance their sick and twisted agendas to get more money for themselves and leave us penniless and broken! We'll show all those naysayers how to govern civilization when we crucify the rich and spread their wealth amongst everybody!! O GOD! what a great day that will be. when there are no more evil corporations, just everyday citizens working to help one another! no more slackers, leaching off the system because everyone will want to work for the greater good. And everyone will have a high paying job, with a corner office, and a 2 story house to come home to. with 3 kids, a dog, and 2 cars. there will be a chicken in every pot and an oppurtunity on every corner. all we need to do is get rid of fatcats that do dispicable acts like create jobs, goods & services, pay most of our nation's income tax, amongst other heinous crimes! And it begins with your artwork man! it is so great and glorious, michaelangelo himself would weep at the awe-inspiring messages you put forth, messages us occupiers can rally behind. But as a side note I think you need to drive your messages on home. here's a little tip, between friends, you should paint a marvelous picture of us occupiers throwing the rich into a great fire while we take all their money and spread it out evenly. I think that would be a glorious way to inspire the feelings all us occupiers truly feel deep down inside. thanks for your time, keep fighting the good fight!

(p.s. In case you can't tell, you glorious genius you! I am being ironic! (woah, no way?!) I've seen the real damage your "peaceful" protests have done. you're only fooling yourself when you paint pictures of you being some holier-than-thou knight in shining armor, riding against the evil capitalist corporations. occupy wall street and wall street actually have one very big thing in common. you both want one big government hand-out. I AM middle class, I WORK for my money. do I like it when GM (government motors) gets a big fat bailout on my dime? or when Obama's green energy buddies get big subsidies from John Q. Public, only to end up going belly-up? hell no. But I find my own ways around government intrusion in my life, I don't sit and piss and moan demanding the government take care of me by taking it out of the pockets from people who, genuinely or otherwise, have earned what they made. my message to occupy: you fucking neo-hippies are fading into nonexistence until all you'll be is a fart in the pages of history. stop pretending you represent the 99% when 75% of america has stopped giving a shit about you.... anyway, I'm done. stepping off my soap box, i suggest you do the same, and get a fucking job or a college education (a GOOD college education, mr. liberal arts degree...)

It will delight you to know that I have a "fucking job" working 50 hours a week BEFORE I go home and draw Propaganda to help expose the absurd wealth gap in our country. I have news for you- you aren't Middle Class. The Middle Class is extinct because those corporations you hold in such high regard don't create jobs, they ship them off to third world countries and to the inside of for-profit prisons. At the end of the day, don't even pay their taxes because of Bush-era loopholes. Maybe you should be in the street getting a taste!

Occupy is a joke. Their movement never changed anything and it never will. Occupy is made up of trouble makers and freeloaders who take up space and leave messes that cost tax payer money to clean up. Here in Los Angeles, they camped out in front of city hall and then claimed to occupy Los Angeles. What a load of crap that was. Occupy says they speak for the 99%, but they have no right to do so. In fact, 99% of the 99 can't stand Occupy. It is time for Occupy and their people to fold their tents. They are done.

George, Occupy has done plenty and changed the world very quickly. The awaking of a spirit of hope within the quietly desperate dissenters in our country is vital to our survival of the class war being waged by blind Republican ideals which have let the rich run a muck. The general public is tired of being used as profit margins by the 1% and have shown it clearly through this GLOBAL protest, reaching far beyond the United States. Things are far from over sir... be prepared for change.

From what I read, many of them are employed and fed up with trying to make ends meet with the cost of living in our country, especially in large cities. These protests include union workers, teachers, nurses and students raising their voices together. The main stream media is bought and paid for to focus on the isolated incidents of negativity and allowing these things to represent tens of thousands of people with good intentions and ideas.

It hurts me to see the negativity directed at you, but I am sure you are aware it is cast from a place of ignorance. Morpheus described it well:

"That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."